Perceptions and attitudes towards poetry among ESL secondary school teachers and students in Rengit, Johor

Abstract

In order to nurture students with love and appreciation towards poetry, it is important for teachers to recognize their own perception and identify the attitudes of their students towards poetry which may affect students’ understanding towards the subject taught in future. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to see the attitudes of secondary school students towards the teaching and learning of poetry and the perceptions of secondary school teachers have towards the teaching and learning of poetry. Another purpose of this study is to see the relationship between gender and perceptions towards poetry, and to see the significant difference between gender and attitudes towards poetry. This study utilises the sequential explanatory mixed method introduced by Creswell (2003) where the mixed-methods of qualitative and quantitative methods are used as its research approaches. These methods involve the collections of data by interviewing the teachers and distributing questionnaires to students. This study is conducted in two secondary schools in Malaysia. The data of the study is retrieved from two schools in Rengit, Johor: SMK Tun Sardon and SMK Permata Jaya. 400 students and 4 teachers are the participants of the study. The findings show that both ESL teachers and students have positive perceptions and attitudes towards poetry. Besides, the finding identifies that there is a significant relationship between perception and gender as well as between attitudes and gender.